fine line
by expiration
Summary: maybe she's a lot crazy and maybe he's not completely sane either. ekko/jinx


disclaimer: charas/league belong to riot games, not me.

* * *

The first person he meets when he joins the League is, unexpectedly, the girl he had a crush on back when he was a kid in the slums of Zaun.

But he's no longer in Zaun, and he thinks he's imagining the long azure hair and rose-colored eyes - until she starts speaking. Not to him, but to her gun. She's too engrossed in her conversation with Fishbones that she doesn't see him and he's too stunned to sidestep her, and she runs straight into him, making both of them fall.

She glances at him for a second, eyebrows raised, before picking herself up off of him and picking up Fishbones. He's still on the floor when she walks away, mumbling to her gun about rude strangers and how a _sorry_ would be appropriate.

His heart's thumping wildly in his chest - it's not a dream, she's here, she's here, she's _here_ \- and he's not sure if he's glad or disappointed that she didn't recognize him.

.

The world must be playing a joke on him, he thinks sourly, when he goes into his first match and realizes who's on the enemy team.

He tries to warn the rest of his team to no avail - they lose first blood to _Jinx_ and her deranged laughter carries from near the bottom edge of the Field to the rest of them as she receives her second kill.

It only continues to get worse for his team. He knows the rest of his team started confidently, because Vi is also on the other team and the possibility of Vi and Jinx having their own fight is high. But Ekko knows better.

Vi may hate her sister (she can deny Jinx is her sister as vehemently as she wants but Ekko knows) but he also knows they're not too different from each other. They both feel the same adrenaline rush when fighting - Vi when she's crushing her opponent's face with her fist and Jinx when she's destroying everything in sight - but more importantly, they're both competitive as _hell_.

 _They still fight well together_ , Ekko thinks almost nostalgically, as Vi jumps on him with a vicious smile and Jinx continuously shoots at him with her mini gun, her face twisted in maniacal glee.

In the end, his team loses devastatingly to the pair, and he spends the next month thinking about the what ifs and a different present time. He tries to stop when, for the umpteenth time that month, Vi has to be restrained by three people and Jinx is just standing there with blood dripping down the side of her face with an oddly blank expression, and he knows nothing can fix them.

But every time he closes his eyes, he sees them exchanging dangerous smiles as they fight alongside each other, and he can't help but dream.

.

Ekko knows he's not completely sane (no kid grows up the way he did and comes out of that unscathed), but he also knows he's not as crazy as Jinx, and maybe Vi or even the others in the League.

But sometimes he can't help but question if he's losing it, like when he's sitting in Ziggs's lab that's filled with explosives that could go off anytime.

Or like now, when he's patching Jinx up after another incident with Vi, and he's making a mental note to tell a stubborn Vi to tone down her punches.

Because no sane person stays around Jinx, the personification of chaos and destruction.

.

It takes Ekko another whole year to finally give in to the truth he's been denying.

He knows the others think there's something going on between him and Jinx - he sees it on Caitlyn's smirk and Vi's fierce scowl (as if the thought of anyone being even _friends_ with Jinx is disgusting) and it seems like everyone else keeps giving him a knowing look.

He ignores it all until he can't.

It all comes to a head when Jinx gets hurt, seriously hurt, once Vi is through with her, and he's worried for Jinx and utterly furious at Vi.

Instead of letting the healers take her away as he usually does, he takes matters in his own hands, and carries Jinx to his room and lays her on his bed, her long hair out of her braids for once and the bright blue strands fan around her, vibrant against his white sheets.

(He allows himself to briefly imagine her position in a different situation with no serious open wounds and her little smile that's just for him and not the result of severe blood loss, and it's so warm and inviting-

-then he sees his sheets turning red and he immediately wants to kick himself for imagining something like that when the girl is bleeding out on his bed.)

Her pink eyes are glazed over and she doesn't move as he cleans up her wounds. She does manage a small, dry laugh that sounds so normal that it sounds almost strange coming from her. "Why are you doing this? Doncha know? I'm _crazy_."

Ekko doesn't reply because _shit_ there's so much blood and _it's not stopping_ and he's most definitely in panic mode now but all he can do now is to focus on stopping the _goddamn blood_ \- why he ever thought he could handle this without a healer is beyond him.

His silence doesn't deter her. Instead it seems to encourage her to continue speaking.

"Y'know, I never thought I'd see you here, Twelve." Ekko's hold on the towel tightens, but still he stays silent and continues to clean the blood off her porcelain skin. "'Course, didn't think I'd end up here either."

She pauses for a moment, almost like she's contemplating something, and this whole new Jinx is so strange and subdued and Ekko isn't sure how he feels about it.

She finally continues. "I recognized you the first day you were here. I heard the rumors, see, and I wanted to take a look for myself. Barely even changed." There's an odd little grin on her face as she stares at the ceiling.

"You knew," Ekko whispers, his hands pausing in their work. Shrilly, he asks, "Why didn't you _tell_ me?"

The grin on her face just widens. "Didn't think you'd care."

"Why wouldn't I-"

"'Cause I'm _crazy_ ," she cuts in, almost a little bitterly, and he remembers a time before she started talking to her gun, before everything went to shit, _before Vi left_.

The blood flowing from her wounds slows, and he starts cleaning and bandaging them, letting her explain herself.

She doesn't continue however, and he doesn't break the silence that descends upon them as he rips up some clean clothes of his and uses them as a makeshift bandage that'll last until a healer catches wind of the news and comes to retrieve her from his room.

When he's done, her eyes drift close and he barely hears her whisper thanks. He just snorts and replies, "Stay away from Vi, then." The smallest of cracks in his voice when he says Vi betrays his worry, and he knows she hears it because she laughs and says nothing.

Then there's frantic knocking on his door, and he hurries to open to before it breaks, revealing an agitated Soraka with Sona standing calmly behind her.

As they take Jinx out of his room, the marksman cheerily reveals, "Fat Hands told me you had a crush on me, once."

They're gone before she can see the way he's blushing all the way to his ears. Nor does she hear his quiet admission that actually, he still does.

* * *

a/n: idk what's a good team comp tbh lmao this is just for funsies. i adore jinx as a character (endless starlight just solidified my love for her lol) and there's just so much to work with *^* thanks for reading!


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